* Posts by David Love

32 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Nov 2006

Google Docs is going mobile

David Love

Excellent - First Class!

Will be popular in the departure lounges at LHR.

More fodder for the netbook doomsters?

Femto World Summit is all smiles (mostly)

David Love

Not just data

It's not about just data, it's about voice as well. 5 bars throughout the house and less battery drain are to me a performance upgrade worth paying a bit for.

Apple's iOS 4 beams into unprepared world

David Love

No black wallpaper!

If like me you're over 18, use XP in Classic Mode and prefer the original black wallpaper, you'll have to create a new 320 x 480 image in 100% black and save it to the device.

Photos now display correctly after a re-sync.

Vodafone shocks data users with roaming price rise

David Love

Lynch me if you like, but I approve

I've been with Voda since they started in 1985, so you could say I'm a satisfied customer. Or low hanging fruit ripe for picking.

Like thousands of others I travel regularly outside Europe with an iPhone. Up to now I've always set data roaming to Off because of the high daily cost, then headed for the nearest hotspot - not always convenient, or even possible.

With the new tariff I can get push Exchange mail, check stocks and weather, use Google Maps etc. for £3 a day provided I don't leave Maps on constantly.

OK I know roaming charges are a rip-off, but surely this move is a practical response to the way many people use smartphones overseas?

EMC's Mozy saunters into the UK

David Love

And...

Another satisfied customer, indifferent to where the data is stored.

Real world example: finish work in UK, land in Cape Town and shit, forgot to copy that file to my laptop.

So I can confirm that Restore works as well as Backup. Pity SA comms are still 3rd world though, pull your finger out, Vodafone.

Christmas stockings attract a Touch or two

David Love

"Sir, please switch off your phone"

I'm on a South African Airways A340 the week before Xmas. With 12 hours ahead of me I plug my hideously expensive Bose cans into my iPhone 3GS and fire up an old episode of Spooks.

Before the opening credits are through comes the dreaded tap on the shoulder:

"Sir, please switch off your phone now".

"It's in Airplane mode, which makes it an iPod"

"Sir, I know the difference between an iPhone and an iPod and that's an iPhone. Please switch it off".

Not wanting to spend Xmas in a police cell I meekly but grudgingly complied.

But could the flight attendant really see the telltale mic slit in the gloom of economy class, or didn't she know that Pods now look like phones?

Well, nobody gave me a Touch for Xmas, but would it have saved me? Or would that have led to another argument about whether all those WiFi enabled laptops were more likely to bring down the plane than my 3G signal?

When is a Touch a phone? Discuss.

Japan falls for the iPhone

David Love

Market share in real world

Apple 50%

RIM 30%

Other 20%

Source: Top deck of London bus, any day, any week.

Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2

David Love

The new ThinkPad is a... Samsung

An earlier coward was right to say that Lenovo have wasted their ThinkPad inheritance.

If you yearn for ThinkPad look and feel - and serious quality to boot - look at the Samsung N510. No "is it carbon?" here, just corporate black.

Stuff in the extra 1Gb RAM and you've got a nice clear 11 inch LED screen, solid hardware, good graphics performance and long haul battery life.

And for all Win7 refuseniks out there, grab one with XP while stocks last.

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700

David Love

It's the back end what matters

Am sure this is a neat device. But BB messaging only comes alive with a BES sitting in the background. What's the point in having all this fancy hardware if you have to USB to a PC to sync your sent items, contacts and calendar?

For "work phones", OTA sync can usually be assumed, but for Joe Public it means Hosted BES at about £20 per month, plus a real chance of being further screwed by the carriers for BES provisioning (UK Voda want another £25 pm).

Compare and contrast the slew of devices with ActiveSync support, where this highly desirable functionality is already built into every Exchange server, and costs about a fiver a month from most email hosting providers.

Samsung N510 Nvidia Ion-based netbook

David Love

Solid performer, no surprises

I bought a N510 to replace my "ageing" but useful little NC10. I wanted ThinkPad build quality, matte screen, solid keyboard and - yes - XP. You can tell I'm over 25. The N510 does not disappoint. The LED screen is bright and pin sharp with significantly more real estate than its predecessor, plus a long haul battery with minimal weight penalty.

Business apps performance is fine and it's nice to be able to plug it into a big telly via HDMI and stream iPlayer.

The only downside was having to spend the first hour removing bloatware. Blimey, I'd hoped those days were over. Other than that, well done Samsung. 9/10.

Windows XP on netbooks to lose life support?

David Love

XP rules

In the unlikely event that this report is true, there will be a rush to grab XP netbooks while they're still available. Netbook buyers want simple machines with an OS that Just Works. Leave the bloated underpowered 17 inch bricks to others to play with - and be disappointed.

Vodafone joins the iPhone throng

David Love

@Voda iPhone + Femto?

Been there, done that - in W London too. Works a treat.

Vodafone's Access Gateway denies access

David Love
Thumb Up

@Not all bad

Agreed. My Gateway had early teething problems but these were promptly addressed and it's now doing what it says on the tin.

iPhone makes eyes at T-Mobile and Orange

David Love

All phones should be sold unlocked

In South Africa, all phones are sold SIM free by law. So you pop into an Apple store and buy (not cheap though) a bog standard, unbroken iPhone which works perfectly on any network, anywhere. Other countries have similar arrangements.

Now that smartphones have morphed into little computers, isn't it about time we separated hardware from comms? Would you buy a netbook locked to BT?

iPhone v Pre - the celebrity smartphone deathmatch

David Love

A third option

Well balanced, well written. Thanks.

Now I'm inspired to..., just hang on to my iPhone 3G.

Why would anyone run their own base station?

David Love

This is about voice, not data

Forget the bit about replacing WiFi. If you're a Voda UK customer and you get 5 bars on 3G throughout your house, think yourself lucky, save £160 and move on.

If like most of us, you have to speak near a window when you arrive home, and your cell phone battery gets knackered hunting for a signal, then a femtocell may be for you.

And the more you use your cellphone instead of a landline, the more Voda will love you.

BlackBerry subscriber growth dips

David Love

RIM's challenge

RIM have done well to aim their newer devices at consumers, but their greatest challenge will be in the SME space, where MS Exchange (actual or hosted) reigns supreme.

Now, anyone with an ActiveSync enabled device - iPhone, Nokia, HTC etc. can have a BES type experience (real time push and OTA sync of mail, contacts and calendar) without the cost or complexity of RIM's backend infrastructure.

The carriers are accelerating this move away from BB by charging outrageous fees for provisioning BES (UK Voda want £25 pm on top on a voice plan).

RIM will always say its USP is data security, but leaving aside spooks and paranoid corporate IT types, the rest of us can now enjoy all the goodies that are still the foundation of RIM's business model, without paying for them.

To maintain momentum, RIM will need to change their game.

Q1 chip sales plunge reveals slowing demand for netbooks

David Love

Fad? Don't think so...

Join the queue at LHR T1 and watch the laptops being disgorged into the scanner. Last year, Dell, Dell, Dell, Vaio, Mac... This year, Asus, Samsung, you know the rest.

You can tell who's downsized, they walk taller. And they smile more; they run XP.

Yes, the portable computer formerly known as Netbook is here to stay.

AMD aims CPUs at 10in SCCs

David Love

It's political!

Can you imagine the angst in the Microsoft/Intel boardrooms - "we spend billions giving them Core 2 and Vista, and all they're buying is poxy little Atom chips and XP Home. That's my bonus down the toilet. How can they can be so ungrateful?"

Each time I fire up my Samsung NC10 I think - this is not just about back-to-basics computing, it's my little protest at having bloated technology stuffed down my throat for the last twenty years.

Rise up, punters, buy a small, cheap laptop formerly known as a netbook. Join the revolution!

Microsoft: Vista desktop key to life fulfillment

David Love

OS rituals

Unbox new machine, connect, boot up.

Set menus, Control Panel to Classic, Explorer to Details view.

Set desktop background to default blue.

Load apps, create shortcuts, auto-arrange icons.

Space icons to look busy but proportionate.

Take pills, make appt to see shrink.

20 per cent of laptop buyers opted for netbooks in Q4 08

David Love

It's the XP, stupid

Many people choose a netbook having realised that unless you pay megabucks, the alternative is a big, heavy machine with an underpowered processor, brought to its knees by pre-installed Vista.

I say the netbook's killer feature is not more room in your backpack for sandwiches, it's XP.

Nokia 6600 Fold clamshell phone

David Love

Perfect for girls

My wife doesn't give a monkey's about 3G, GPS, WiFi or Bluetooth.

But she loves the 6600's big buttons for texting with long nails, and the slinky clamshell to slip into the matching pink pouch to slip into the matching pink handbag,

Pure fashion. And it works.

BlackBerry Bold drops off Orange website

David Love

Storm in a teacup?

It's not just Orange who are having problems with Bold - not a single US carrier has yet released the device, citing "testing issues".

And if this is happening with Bold, which is basically a 8800 with aircon and electric windows, what about the upcoming Storm, the first BB with touchscreen etc? I do hope RIM and carriers have done their homework, otherwise there'll be much crowing over in Cupertino.

RIM Blackberry Bold 9000

David Love

After a week I went back to my Curve

All you Bold fanboys must have big hands! I found it heavy, clumsy and the keypad difficult to type on accurately.

Sure it ticks all the connectivity boxes, but even with v4.6.0.147 I was recharging the battery every night.

Generally, Bold looks/feels like RIM's response to iPhone rather than a great leap forward. 5/10.

3G iPhone packs in $100 of hardware - analyst

David Love

@What next?

"But ‘owning’ the device and its platform is now even more important as new mobile services they are developing depend on this to function as designed."

Agreed, look at RIM. But where does this leave WM? When you see what Apple are doing with MobileMe, it reminds you that Microsoft could have done this ages ago, they had all the tools, they perhaps just lacked the vision?

Indian gov: Let us into BlackBerry or we'll shut you down

David Love

In practical terms 2...

Can't see what all the fuss is about. As soon as your BlackBerry syncs with an Exchange server, doesn't that message then become visible to the server's admin?

RIM pitches 'power user' tri-band HSDPA BlackBerry

David Love

No surprises

Solid evolution here, just the way most BB users like it.

UK Voda must be gagging for it - think of the lower costs of carrying all that data over 3G.

Pink shades wash over Palm and BlackBerry

David Love

Brits can have RaspBerries, too

CPW promise a pink BlackBerry 8110 "Coming Soon". That's the one with GPS but no WiFi. So your lover need never get lost, and there'll still be plenty of time to talk whilst web pages load over GPRS.

Blackberry Pearl 8120 smartphone

David Love

Phone 8/10, Video 0

Bad Beaver makes some good points, but this device was never meant for texting teens. The fact that the original Pearl became RIM's biggest seller confirms that there's an attractive market for devices that deliver corporate mail whilst being smaller and OK for the odd MP3 or - as our presenter omitted to mention - video.

I think the 8120 is a decent and mature product, pity that Voda are in denial about WiFi BlackBerries, had to buy one SIM free. Oh well, it'll fetch more on eBay when it's time has come.

Customer exodus hits Virgin Media

David Love

BT for ever

When BT became my ISP, Thatcher was PM, CompuServe was King and 56k dialup was a twinkle in the eye.

Well, I'm still with them. Not the cheapest, but it just works.

TV? Did a five year stretch with Sky, came to my senses, now Freeview PVR until something better comes along.

T-Mobile 'super 3G' modem tackles Vodafone on price

David Love

Re. Not available without a contract

I don't understand why the carriers won't sell these devices in UK on a pre-paid basis. Surely ad hoc usage is the whole point?

In South Africa, for example, you can walk into a Vodacom shop, pay about £180, and come out with a Voda branded HSDPA modem with a pre-paid SIM.

It's blinding fast on a good day and the best part is, data costs just 1.5p per Mb.

Vodafone Mobile Connect 'super 3G' USB modem

David Love

Available as PAYG in South Africa

Voda's SA subsidiary Vodacom offers this device for about £200 without contract, data at 15p/Mb. And they claim 1.8Mbps.

Until I heard about this I was roaming with a 3G datacard at £10/Mb. Caveat emptor!